


We'd Reach for the Sky

by iktwabrokenbone (apiculteur)



Category: Bandom, Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - Artificial Intelligence, Alternate Universe - Space, F/F, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-10
Updated: 2014-09-10
Packaged: 2018-02-16 22:34:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2286869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apiculteur/pseuds/iktwabrokenbone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tyler is working on a space station. Josh is an AI.</p>
            </blockquote>





	We'd Reach for the Sky

**Author's Note:**

> yes hello sorry that im lame at the whole regular posting thing. i was so good for a while! but now theres school so i wont be posting as often but hey the fics are getting longer kind of sometimes. this is kind of weird au where its sort of like space odyssey mixed with star trek and my own imagination. but yeah w/e.
> 
> title from slowtown by 21p

It was weird being in space. Flying in planes, looking down at mountains and rivers and stretches of land and tiny cars, was amazing enough, but _space stations_? It was another level. He could see half of the entire world, clouds and seas and mountain ranges and entire countries, _continents_ , all made to look small from the windows in the space station.

It was Tyler's first time ever on a space station, and whilst being posted on a space station usually wouldn't be terribly impressive- more of first assignment, before moving onto colonies, and eventually starships- this particular space station _was_ impressive. It had artificial intelligences, sentient AI's, with gender preferences and opinions, the capability to come up with stories and lies.

They were dangerous, but fascinating. The hight of technology, being trialled on the exact space station Tyler would be working on.

  
Of course, it was a shame that Tyler would be working 'night' shift- given that name despite the lack of real time in space- so he wouldn't meet the AI with a body, but he would still be able to talk to the other AI. He couldn't quite remember the name, so he would have to ask it about that. He didn't think it would be insulted. At least he hoped it wouldn't be.

Tyler could hear someone walking up behind him, quietly sitting down beside him. "It's disorientating, isn't it?" they asked, and Tyler turned to see it was the woman from earlier, Debby.

Tyler nodded, staring down at the planet. "Yeah. Do you get used to it?" he asked. He was pretty sure she had been here for almost half a year now, so he was planning on going to her to ask most things. She seemed like the kind of person who wouldn't mind that.

She laughed slightly. "Eh, kinda. It's less worrying, stops making you feel quite so insignificant, but it's still weird."

They looked out for a moment longer before Debby turned to him. "Oh! Just remembered, you still need a comm clip, don't you?" she said, gesturing vaguely to the device clipped onto her ear that let her communicate with the night shift AI.

"Uh, yeah," he said. He was excited to speak with the AI, but it'd be unusual. He wondered if it'd be very different from talking to humans, if its voice would be electronic with unnatural pauses, or more human-like.

"C'mon," Debby said, standing up and starting off towards a door, so Tyler shook away his thoughts, only scrambling slightly in an effort to keep up.

***

Fifteen minutes later, they had found an extra comm clip and Tyler could, potentially, speak to the AI. Debby smiled at him, glancing at the other two people in the room who had helped get him the comm. "Do you wanna go to your quarters so you can speak with him properly? It's kinda weird talking to him when there's other people around staring at you," she said, and Tyler have her a grateful look.

"Yeah, that'd be cool," he said, mumbling goodbyes as he left the room. He was pleased there were screens on the walls displaying maps, or else there would be no chance he would ever find his way bak to his quarters.

As it was, it still took him fifteen minutes and three wrong turns to find them, and even then he was very cautious entering the room, scared he'd get it wrong and would end up walking into someone else's quarters. They were his though, and he sighed quietly with relief, collapsing onto the couch.

For a while, he sat thinking. It was his first day in space, and there was a lot to sort through in his mind. It took him a while before he remembered the AI, at which point he realised he had no idea how to actually talk to it.

Feeling a bit like an idiot, he cleared his throat. "Uh. Hey?" he said, calling out slightly, as though the AI was hiding in his quarters somewhere, rather than integrated into the ships systems and the comm clip.

"Hey," a voice replied, obviously not actually there, only coming through the comm. It had an American accent, and sounded pretty casual. Tyler couldn't tell yet if it sounded human yet.

"Hey," Tyler repeated back, relaxing slightly. "I don't actually know your name." He felt a bit bad admitting it out loud, but the AI didn't seem too bothered.

"It's Josh. Joint Overseeing System Humanoid," it said.

"Sounds like someone was trying quite hard to spell Josh," Tyler commented absently, then blushed when he heard what he said. "I mean-"

Josh was laughing at him. "Probably. I'm not even really humanoid," it- _he_ , Tyler wasn't allowed to be amazed by the fact that these AI's had genders if he refused to respect that- said.

"If they wanted it to spell a name, they could've chosen something different so it actually made sense. Sam seems like an easier name to work out an acronym for," Tyler said.

He could swear if Josh was in front of him he'd be smiling. "Yeah. You should speak to whoever named me," Josh said.

Tyler nodded, not really sure if Josh would have any idea about what he was doing. There was a slight lull in conversation before Tyler spoke. "Dude, what do you do on this ship?"

"Kinda just making sure everyone is okay," he said, and if Tyler closed his eyes, didn't pay attention to the way the voice was directly into his ear instead of in front of him, he was sure it would almost be like Josh was in the room. The science-y part of him was practically humming with excitement.

"Like, a therapist?" he asked.

Josh made a humming sound, like he was thinking of a way to describe it. "Not really- more like just someone to talk to. A friend. Or, yeah, sort of like a therapist if you want to vent your problems. Just whatever," he said. "Patrick does more of the engineering stuff. Routine maintenance, making sure life support works, fixing anything broken. Engineering."

He hadn't been told- or maybe just forgot- the name of the other AI, the android with the body, but he assumed it was Patrick. It seemed strange that they hadn't given Josh a body too, but it was probably testing out different types of AI's, and how good they were at their jobs. AI's of this level of complexity _were_ in their testing stages, so it'd make sense. "Cool," he said, because he realised he had been silently thinking for slightly too long.

Josh laughed again quietly, and Tyler had to stop himself from wandering off into another deep train of thought, about how he could hear Josh taking breaths between his words, and he had laughed a quite a few times now, and he-

Tyler shook his head, both to try shake the thoughts away, and to show how he disapproved of himself. Conversations with Josh would go very slowly if he kept drifting off like this, and he did want to talk to Josh more. And, contrary to his thoughts before boarding the station, not just about his programming. He just wanted to _talk_ to him. Even just from the short exchange they had had so far, he already found himself interested in Josh as a person. He seemed funny, and really sweet. He felt like a kid starting a new school, desperately hoping that the cool kid would be friends with him.

He yawned, probably seeming exaggerated and fake. "'M sorry. So tired. I didn't even realise," he said, feeling disorientated when he remembered he had no one to direct his apologetic looks at. He looked at his hands, then the ceiling, then the wall. He'd have to get used to that.

"It's cool, man," he said. "Go to sleep. Humans need that stuff."

Tyler's laugh turned into a yawn, and he couldn't sigh at himself because he was too busy practically dislocating his jaw by opening his mouth too wide. Again, Tyler nodded before remembering he couldn't be seen. "Yeah. G'night, Josh."

"Night," Josh said, and Tyler stood up to go find his bed. A part of him thought he should just sleep on the couch because he couldn't be bothered to move, but he could see the bed through a small archway, and it couldn't be more than five metres away.

He didn't bother to even take off his shoes, just flopped on top of the covers and fell asleep quicker than he thought he ever could in a foreign place. Space was tiring.

***

He woke up the next day an hour before his alarm. He didn't usually wake up early, but the fact that his head was half hanging over the edge of the bed might have had something to do with it. He yawned, and sighed when he realised he was already too awake to try going back to sleep in a more comfortable position.

Tyler walked slowly around the room, trying to come up with a way to kill the hour he had before breakfast started being served. He had forgotten to bring his ukulele. He'd have to ask his mom to send it up for him.

He lasted about five minutes of pacing around and being silent before he spoke. "Josh?" he asked. There wasn't really much else he could do but talk to the AI, and he still had his comm clip on from yesterday.

"Yeah?" he replied, making Tyler jump slightly. He wasn't really sure if Josh could see him, or tell what he was doing, but he blushed anyway.

"Can you see things?" he asked, because he was a master at being discreet.

Josh made a slight sound of amusement, which made him think that Josh could see his pinked cheeks. "I can see through the security feed, but there are no cameras in your quarters."

"Oh," he said. "Cool."

Josh laughed again, and Tyler blushed harder. "Yeah, it's not the same as having a body, but it's something."

Tyler frowned. Honestly, he sort of didn't register that Josh might want a body. He had assumed he would be fine with it, but he seemed more resigned to it than anything.

"That sucks, bro," he said, because he couldn't say much else. "They can't build you a body?"

"I think they've already designed one for me, but it'll be a few months until it's made, if it does get made," he said, and Tyler wished he could give him a quick hug. He didn't sound sad, just disappointed and wishful, underneath the nonchalance.

"Oh," Tyler said once again, then tried to come up with a more positive subject. "Do you like music?" he asked, because his mind was still thinking about the ukulele he had left on Earth.

"Yeah," Josh said, sounding enthusiastic. "I wanna be in a band."

Tyler smiled. "What would you play?"

Josh paused for a few seconds. "Probably drums or something."

"Drums? Sick," he said. "I play ukulele, but I left it at home."

"Oh, darn," Josh said. "Are you gonna get it sent up later?"

"Yeah, I'll ask my mom to."

"Will you play it for me when it gets here?" he asked, sounding almost _hopeful_.

"Yeah, sure," Tyler said, and he couldn't help but smile, because he was sure that if Josh had a body, he would be beaming as he thanked him.

Tyler wasn't quite sure how, but he ended up almost missing breakfast. It wasn't until Josh noticed the time and apologised that he realised he had spent over an hour talking to him. He said goodbye, and hurried to the mess hall. Debby waved him over.

"How come you're so late?" she asked.

"Got caught up talking to someone," he said.

Debby smiled. "Josh?"

He blushed, even though there was nothing embarrassing about someone knowing he spoke to the ship's AI. "Yeah."

***

The weeks went on, each day very similar. He spoke to Josh quickly in the morning, went to work, hung around with Debby and Jenna during their breaks, and politely declined any offers to go over to their quarters after work (they were great, but even if they tried to include him, he would end up third-wheeling whilst they were all cute and couple-y). He had mainly spent whatever time he had after work in his own quarters- he wasn't all that busy after work, but he _felt_ very busy, so he just spoke to Josh.

The more he spoke to Josh, the more he forgot he was an AI. If anything, he seemed _more_ human the more Tyler spoke to him, despite his previous assumptions that he would begin to notice inhuman things about him once he got more used to him. Tyler sometimes expected him to be right beside him, gently elbowed the empty space beside him when it got to the good part in a movie, looked over to wherever he imagined Josh being when he told a funny pun and no one laughed at his genius.

He didn't really care, though. It was _different_ , maybe a bit strange, but not bad at all. He had gotten used to being friends with a disembodied AI.

It was kind of weird when he remembered that there was an AI _with_ a body, somewhere on the ship. He hadn't ever met him before, but he was there, somewhere. It wasn't until almost a month on the ship that, after giving into Jenna and Debby and ending up hanging out with them until three in the morning, he met him.

He was very tired, and he accidentally walked into someone. He didn't really register walking into someone so much as he realised he was sitting down on the floor when a second ago he had been standing.

"Oh, sorry!" someone apologised, and a slightly unnaturally pale hand was proffered to him. Tyler grasped it, because he was tired and confused and unsure what he was supposed to do with it.

They pulled him up, and he blinked at them. The man's eyes looked a bit weird- they seemed to literally light up, and the colour of his skin was _definitely_  too pale to be human. He briefly wondered if he was an alien, but they were on a space station less than half a light year away from Earth, so it was unlikely an alien would travel as far from their home planet for such a low level assignment. "Are you Patrick?" he asked, which, yeah, was completely ignoring whatever the man had said to him, but at least he hadn't said 'the AI'. He wasn't _that_ much of an idiot.

The guy blinked at him, and Tyler could swear he heard a tiny mechanical clicking noise. "Uh, yeah," he said, sounding a bit confused.

"Oh," Tyler said.

"Are you new here? I'm sure I haven't seen you around before," Patrick said, and Tyler wondered if he only had the day crew on record, or if his records were just outdated and he didn't have Tyler on record yet.

"I'm night shift."

Tyler wasn't sure if the look Patrick gave him was worried or impressed. "Oh, wow. It's pretty late for you."

Tyler nodded, and was coming up with something to say when someone came sprinting up to them. "Patrick!" he said, wrapping his arms around him and nuzzling his face into his neck. Patrick sighed and rolled his eyes, acting as though he was exasperated, but Tyler heard a fast little clicking sound, like a quickly beating heart. He wasn't sure if it _was_ Patrick's metallic heart speeding up- or even if he actually had a heart- but it was cute to think that it was his heart.

The man smacked a kiss onto Patrick's cheek, and Patrick turned his head to the side a little, like he would prefer it to be on his lips. "Hey, Pete," he said, smiling.

"Hey," he said, then turned his head to look at Tyler, as though he'd only just noticed him. "Who's this?"

"This is- I'm not sure." He looked at Tyler.

"I'm Tyler."

"This is Tyler. He's night shift, and I walked into him," Patrick said to Pete.

Pete smiled and Tyler. "Hey. Isn't it pretty late for you?" he asked.

Tyler nodded. "Yeah, I should get going," he said.

"Yeah, cool," Patrick said, and Tyler kinda wished they were on the same shift.

"See you 'round," Pete said, and Tyler wasn't completely sure that they would see each other again, at least not for a while, but he smiled and nodded anyway, and walked back to his quarters. He only just managed to force himself to strip down to his boxers before he went to sleep far quicker than was natural.

***

Tyler woke up the next day feeling infinitely thankful that it was a weekend. He had shifts Monday to Friday, so if it hadn't been, he would probably have been shipped back to Earth. It was already afternoon- albeit only just- and he groaned quietly. He was still sort of tired, but he didn't want to sleep any longer.

He forced himself out of bed, and almost tripped over something, making an undignified squeak as he did so. He looked down at the floor, ready to stare accusingly at whatever almost made him fall, but ended up grinning. It was his ukulele.

It must've come on the shuttle earlier, and Debby probably brought it in. At some point he had told the computer that she had permission to enter his quarters without him confirming that she could come in, because she came over so often. He picked her up- yeah, he referred to his ukulele as a she, and he had named her Chicago- and played a few chords. He was a little bit unpracticed, but it would only take him a few minutes to warm up and get back to what he had been when he had last played her. It hadn't been _that_ long, though it had felt like it.

"Josh?" he called, because it seemed weird to be able to just say his name in a normal voice and him to be able to hear.

"Yeah?"

"My ukulele's here," he said, and smiled when he heard the excited little gasp Josh made.

"Can you play something for me?" he asked, sounding cautious. He knew what music meant to Tyler, and he probably just didn't want to feel like he was pressuring Tyler into anything. He was sweet like that.

Tyler nodded. "Yeah, sure." He thought for a few seconds, then decided to play an old song, one he hadn't written. He played through the first few chords quickly, making sure he remembered them right, then started playing.

" _Wise men say, only fools rush in. But I can't help, falling in love with you_ ," he sang, and at some point he realised that he was singing a love song to Josh, but he didn't really care. Okay, he was blushing, but mainly just because he hadn't really noticed what he was singing until more than half way through.

He played the last chord, and he could tell how happy Josh was. "If my programming would let me, I would be clapping right now," he said, and even though his programming didn't let him clap, it was still pretty amazing, because he sounded like he was smiling.

"Thanks, man," he said.

Josh hesitated before he asked, "Play me another?"

Tyler did, and he went on like that for a long time, going between playing songs and talking, the cycle only broken when Tyler went to get some food. At some point, there was a lull in which Tyler wasn't play anything, and neither was speaking. Tyler's mind wandered, and he remembered yesterday- that morning, really- when he had seen Pete and Patrick.

"Hey, have you ever dated anyone?" he asked, ready to apologise, because he wasn't quite sure if he had gotten too personal.

"Yeah," Josh said, and he laughed slightly. "I dated Debby before she realised she was a lesbian."

Tyler laughed too, because it was weird picturing Debby with anyone other than Jenna, never mind when that person was a _guy_. "What about you? Are you straight, gay, bi, something else?"

"Pan, I think. I'm just generally attracted to people," he said, and Tyler nodded. By now, he was pretty sure Josh could just tell when he was nodding.

There was another lull, and then Tyler picked up Chicago again and played another song, one he had written himself.

***

Tyler had lost track of how long he had been on the station for. He still spoke to his mom at least once a week, and the rest of his family almost as often, and he still missed them, but the station felt like home. He had friends there, he knew the names of most of the night crew, and _Josh_ was there. If he was anywhere else, he wouldn't be able to speak to Josh.

Once, he had gone on a short trip to pick up some supplies from the nearest starbase, because the shuttle that was supposed to be bringing them supplies had ended up having to go to some nearby colony that had been struck by some sort of widespread illness. It hadn't been until about an hour into the flight that he had realised he couldn't speak to Josh in the shuttle. He could only speak to him on the station, and when he inevitably left, he wouldn't be able to speak to Josh again unless he came back or they made him a body, neither of which were guaranteed.

After that, Tyler had decided to just not think about it. They would work it out, whatever happened. Tyler would stay on the station if it was the only way he was able to talk to his best friend.

***

Tyler was sitting on the couch in Debby and Jenna's quarters, having a night with them again. He didn't third-wheel as hard as he thought he would, because they were restraining themselves from acting too cutesy together, and when they did, they would make jokes about it.

After a while, Tyler glanced at the nearest clock. "Hey, guys, I gotta go," he said, and Debby raised an eyebrow at him, biting back a smile.

"Why? Got something planned?"

Tyler nodded once. "I told Josh that I'd watch a movie with him tonight," he said, and Debby grinned openly. "What?"

She just giggled, and he looked helplessly at Jenna. She just gave him the same look. "What?" he asked, and Jenna shook her head.

"It's nothing, Ty," she said, and placed a kiss on his cheek. "Go watch a movie with Josh."

He pouted at her, but Debby kissed his other cheek and gave his shoulder a shove. "Jenna's right. Go."

He glared at them both, but left anyway, because he really did want to watch a movie with Josh.

***

It was about half way through the movie that Tyler reached towards the space beside him, looking for a hand to grasp which wasn't there. There was a sort of slow realisation, because he wasn't someone who thought that if you made any form of physical contact automatically meant you were dating, but he also didn't usually hold hands with his friends.

He took a slow breath in, then released it all in a gust. _Dang. Heck. Dang dang heck dang._

"What?" Josh asked, and Tyler shook his head.

"Nothing," he said. "I'll tell you later, 'kay?"

Josh made a sceptical noise, but agreed. "Okay," he said.

"I will," Tyler said, and he meant it. He _would_ tell him, it just might take a while.

***

Tyler sort of forgot about it. Sure, sometimes Josh would say something, and Tyler couldn't help but think about how cute he was, but other than that it wasn't something he thought about much. In the end, it wasn't until Josh brought it up again that he remembered.

"Hey, Ty?" he asked, as Tyler played random chords on Chicago. Sometimes, he wanted another ukulele- not to replace her, just to have another ukulele- but it felt like he would be cheating on Chicago. He petted her.

"Yeah?" he asked, trying to take his focus away from the instrument.

"What were you gonna tell me the other day?" he asked, and Tyler paused.

"Oh," he said, and put his ukulele down on the sofa. "Well, you know how Pete and Patrick from the day crew are dating?"

"Yeah?" Josh said, sounding vaguely bemused.

"Well I think it'd be pretty sick if we dated too," he said. It probably wasn't the best way to ask someone out, and Debby and Jenna would definitely laugh at him if they heard, but at least he said it.

Josh was quiet for a while, and Tyler just wanted to know what he was thinking. He sort of wished Josh had a body, because then he would actually be able to get an idea of how this made him feel.

"Josh?" he asked, nervous. One of the bad things about Josh being a disembodied voice was that, if he got embarrassed, he couldn't run away or avoid him. He could take off the comm clip, sure, but people would notice that immediately and ask about it.

"You want to date me?" Josh asked, and Tyler was just relieved that he had said something, even if it was a question rather than an answer.

"Yeah, if you're cool with that," he said, resisting the urge to pick at his hand and blush.

"Yeah, I'm cool with that. That sounds pretty sick," Josh said, and he was definitely smiling.

"It does," Tyler said, smiling.

"Yeah."

Neither of them said anything for a little while, both just grinning. "Do you want me to play another song?" Tyler asked.

"Can you play 'Can't Help Falling in Love'?" Josh asked.

Tyler picked up Chicago, grinned down at her before starting to play.

***

Tyler had been dating for about a month when Josh mentioned it. "Tyler?" he asked, during one of their comfortable silences. He was very quiet, and maybe even slightly scared.

"I'm here," Tyler said, because it sounded like Josh needed it.

"What if they never make me a body?" he asked. "What would you do?"

"What do you mean?"

"Would you still date me if you knew I would never have a body?" he asked, and Tyler blinked, surprised.

"Of course I would," he said, trying to make his town get across how much he meant that. He would never leave Josh, not unless Josh wanted him to leave.

"But, we couldn't-" He was sure Josh would be blushing now if he could. "Y'know."

Tyler didn't giggle at that, only because Josh might think he was laughing at him and get upset. "I wouldn't mind, J," he said, smiling.

"Really?" he asked, quiet and hopeful.

"Yeah." Tyler blushed and looked down at the floor. "I love you."

"I love you too," Josh said, and he sounded like he was grinning.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks so much for reading. you are lovely people. itd be cool if you could leave kudos or a comment.


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